Princess of Olympus
by CinderMaddie
Summary: Clara Lake is worried that she hasn't been Claimed. It's been three months since she arrived at Camp Half Blood, what was her goddess mother doing? However, her Claiming will have severe consequences, as the daughter of the Queen of Olympus...
1. Chapter 1 - Daughter of Hera

It had been three months. Three months of waiting, hoping and more waiting. I thought that waiting three months to be Claimed was basically illegal, since Percy Jackson had bartered with the gods that they had to claim their children as soon as possible.

It seemed like whoever my godly parent was didn't listen to that rule.

"You'll get Claimed, Clara," Travis Stoll said, he and his brother weighing their hands on my shoulders. "Of course, as soon as you're gone, we're claiming the extra bed."

Travis and Connor had broken on of their beds in what is now named 'The Bouncy Castle Catastrophe'. It turns out beds break when bounced on by more than three people.

I rolled my eyes as the boys ran out of the Hermes cabin, probably scheming their next big prank. It wasn't enough for Hermes to be the god of messengers; he had to be the god of thieves as well. I'd lost count of how many toothbrushes I'd 'lost' from the camp storeroom.

I was the only person in the Hermes cabin after the twins left. Everyone else was crowding round the pavilion, getting ready for the new members of Camp Half Blood to be claimed. Cayce West was claimed as a daughter of Apollo as soon as she stepped over the roots of Thalia's tree that protect the camp's boundaries. Marcus Tale was claimed as a son of Mars before he'd even made it past the Big House (of course, he was then transferred to Camp Jupiter where, I hear, he's joined the Fifth Cohort.)

The point is everyone was getting claimed before me. At sixteen, I thought I'd be claimed years ago. Whispers had reached me about Camp Half Blood, a safe haven for the sons and daughters of Greek Gods. I kind of put two and two together; my mother had been absent since my birth, and I was occasionally visited by a hellhound or three. My father was quick to spill the beans about my genetics when I came home with my thigh ripped up and bloody, after narrowly escaping the attacks of a rogue harpy.

Maybe my mother was shy? Maybe she wanted to ignore the fact that she had a kid roaming about the earth? Maybe she already had a lot of children, and couldn't be dealing with another? The Aphrodite cabin sure looked pretty full.

I thought for a while about being Aphrodite's daughter. We had the same blonde locks, though I didn't share her piercing blue eyes. Mine were the color of oak. However, I didn't think that my appearance was parallel to the supermodels of the Aphrodite cabin. I was plain. Ordinary.

Perhaps Athena was my mother. My eyes could be grey, in the correct lighting…. but Eliza Forth was claimed by Athena during her very first Claiming. Surely, Athena wouldn't have forgotten about me, being so logical and all.

I was summoned from my thoughts by Lilac, an eighteen-year-old daughter of Demeter. She always smelled just like her namesake.

"Clara?" she said as she knocked on the open cabin door. "Are you coming to the Claiming?"

I shook my head. "What's the point?"

Lilac swayed over to my bed in her long wheat colored skirt. "Today might be the day."

"You say that about every Claiming day." The tradition of Claiming Days was still held, for those gods too reluctant to claim their children until they were safely in the camp. As soon as you put a label on something, the pursuing demon power was tripled.

"But it could be _true _this time."

"My mother can Claim me whether I'm here or by the hearth," I said. It was easy for Lilac. She was claimed straight away. She felt the need to hang around with me because we arrived at Camp on the same day, though she was already one of the most popular kids in the Demeter cabin, due to her ability to make the strawberry plants grow in six seconds flat.

"The hearth is the home of the Camp, though, Clara. Special magic surrounds the area," Lilac explained something I'd been told a thousand times. "Plus, do you really want the Hermes Cabin to be where you are claimed: the no man's land of demigod children?"

I laughed. The Hermes Cabin didn't have as many unclaimed campers staying with them anymore, since the construction of cabins for nearly all of the minor gods. (Jason Grace was still trying to come through on his promise, after all.)

"Well…"

"C'mon. I made cookies."

OK, Lilac was bringing out the big guns with Demeter Cabin cookies. No-one at camp could make them better than a daughter of the wheat goddess.

"Fine. But I swear, this is the last Claiming I'm attending."

"Suit yourself," Lilac said, grabbing my hand. She pulled me towards the door. "We better hurry, it's starting!"

Claiming was always so magical, no matter how many I saw or whether or not I was Claimed. The hearth fire always glowed twice as bright and you could feel the power radiating in the air. Kids that hadn't been claimed were buzzing like fireflies, their excitement palpable. It made me feel jealous, that I didn't and couldn't feel the same way.

Chiron, in full centaur mode, stood closest to the fire. "Demigods!" he boomed, instantly gaining everyone's attention. "The time had come for the unnamed to be Claimed!"

A raucous round of applause spread its way through the crowd. As soon as the clapping died down, a burst of orange light began to emanate from a scrawny boy with oily hair. A hammer symbol glowed in bronze above his head.

"Hector Quartz, son of Hephaestus!" Chiron shouted. The Hephaestus campers stomped their feet against the ground as Hector rushed to join them. He smiled as his new family welcomed him.

A purple glow burst around a girl of about fourteen straight afterwards. Multiple Z letters floated above her head as Chiron called "Ellie Mount, daughter of Hypnos!"

The Hypnos campers were significantly less rowdy than the Hephaestus campers, but all enveloped Ellie in a sleepy hug before she promptly fell asleep against one of the older camper's shoulders.

The Claiming continued for another ten minutes, as the last of the unclaimed where given a home with their half brothers and sisters. I stayed close to Lilac, who squeezed my shoulder hopefully as soon as the last camper was Claimed.

"That's all for now, folks," Dionysus grumbled, kicking his Coca Cola can into the flames. "Now, get back to your cabins before curfew." The wine god was about to continue whining at the campers to disperse when Chiron held him back.

The fire had suddenly roared to twice its usual height. Obviously, the Claiming was not concluded. Everyone looked around for the last unclaimed camper. Lilac elbowed me forward, into the open ring surrounding the fire, despite my protests.

"What are you doing?" I hissed.

"More like what are you doing? Go be Claimed!" she cheered, ignoring my moody expression.

"Hmm, seems we have a last minute decision," Dionysus huffed. "Come on, gods, stake your claim," he shouted to the sky. "I was in the middle of a card game!"

It looked like the gods couldn't be hurried. I was about to turn back to Lilac, firmly giving up, when suddenly a faint glow surrounded me.

WHAT?

Normally from the color of the glow, you can guess who the godly parent was going to be. Mine was pink. I couldn't be Aphrodite's daughter, could I? However, the pink was not hot pink like the Aphrodite girls. There wasn't enough sparkle to be the daughter of the goddess of love. Instead the pink was soft and faded, almost gold, like the colour of the sky right before a sunset.

Chiron furrowed his brows at me, confused.

The glow around me grew stronger, causing campers to back away from me with large steps.

"She's going supernova!" I heard someone whisper as the light grew so bright around me, I thought Chiron would have trouble making out the godly symbol that was bound to be above my head.

Yet, he wasn't calling out my mother. Instead, I slowly started to rise off the ground. ? I was three feet above the hearth when the light grew so bright, Lilac told me later that she couldn't see me. I could feel something strange was happening.

My orange camp t-shirt and ripped shorts changed, evaporating from me like water to be replaced by a flowing golden toga, held by a pink gem stone at the shoulder. Golden ropes of purple and green beads tied around my waist, along with bangles circling my upper arms. I felt the parts of my hair closest to my face become braided and gladiator sandals adorn my feet.

SERIOUSLY, WHAT WAS GOING ON?

I floated to the ground, landing surprisingly gracefully for someone now wearing a golden toga with a foot length train of fabric at my feet. The light around me softened into a warm rosy hem.

Chiron gulped when he looked above my head.

The closest surrounding campers gasped, starting whispers towards the people at the back that didn't have the perfect view of the godly symbol glowing above my head.

It was a single peacock feather.

Chiron cleared his throat, clearly uncertain whether to announce my goddess mother's identity. Dionysus elbowed him in the ribs, probably anxious to get back to his cards.

"Presenting," Chiron coughed, waving his arms in my direction. I felt like a complete freak with everyone staring at me like I'd just said Percy Jackson was a loser. (Which of course, he isn't.)

Dionysus had to take over, as Chiron couldn't continue. Before my mother's name was whispered, I glanced towards Lilac. She had small tears in her eyes.

"Clara Lake," Dionysus said, with what I thought was a hint of fear. "Daughter of Hera."


	2. Chapter 2 - Son of Selene

OK, that did not go down well.

I stumbled towards Chiron, wishing that he and Dionysus had made a mistake. I couldn't be Hera's daughter. She was the Queen of Olympus, the goddess of familial love and marriage! What was she doing falling in love with a mortal?

"Chiron!" I called out, but he'd already started to gallop up towards the Big House. Dionysus was left in his wake. I decided to approach the Camp Director, hoping that he would council me about my situation.

"Well, this can't be good," he said. What a complete understatement.

As soon as I was claimed, dark clouds rolled in above the hearth. Torrential rain lashed down from the heavens, extinguishing the glowing embers of the hearth and causing the other campers to run for cover. I felt sorry for the sons and daughters of minor gods, who had to run furthest to their cabins, whereas the Aphrodite campers took two paces towards their cabin door, whilst screaming about their damp hair and running make-up.

Why was I feeling sorry for Aphrodite children? I was the daughter of a goddess who was not meant to have a daughter…or any children for that matter!

"Dionysus," I said, my voice getting lost in the rain, "what should I do?"

The wine god stared at his wet feet. He'd chosen to wear flip flops. "Come up to the Big House," he said. "Zeus knows there aren't any beds in the Hera Cabin."

We both turned our heads to look at Hera's cabin, previously only symbolic and vacant. Hera would have been angry if she wasn't represented at Camp Half Blood. I wonder how she was feeling now, about her cabin having a single member.

The cabin was smaller than Zeus's, and was made of marble the same color as the glow around my skin: sunset pink. Somehow, the magical gold toga I was wearing was still glowing. I wondered when it would wear off.

I quickly followed Dionysus up to the Big House. The blue paint covering the three stories and attic shone like a beacon in the dark night. Dionysus didn't wait for me to follow him inside, simply letting the door swing shut behind him. Tentatively, I opened the screen door, worried that the invitation to come up there was void. Would I have to sleep outside, feeling more rejected than the Hades campers? At least Nico de Angelo had a bed, even if it was made of black quartz.

"Clara," Chiron greeted me as soon as I entered. "Sorry for disappearing, but this…event has caused further action to be taken." I didn't like the sound of further action, but I didn't dispute the fact that my claiming was an event. People were probably marking their characters 'The day Olympus fell to chaos'. What was next- was Artemis suddenly going to claim a child?!

"Chiron, I don't understand what's-"

"We all don't understand, girly," Dionysus said, pouring himself a large glass of Coca Cola.

"Something like this has never happened before," Chiron said gently.

"But, I thought Zeus claiming Jason Grace was a pretty big deal…and Poseidon claiming Percy Jackson was an 'event'."

"Sure, those claimings may have sparked the interest, and publishing deal, of our Camp Scribe, but those kids were sons of the Big Three. They _weren't _sons of the chaste goddess of marriage." Dionysus barked.

I flinched. Were people going to blame me for my parentage? I would change it in a heartbeat, if I could.

"Dionysus," Chiron snapped, "this is not Clara's fault." I was glad someone was on my side. "This just needs to be dealt with in the proper manner."

"Proper manner?" Dionysus roared. "If we don't deal with this quickly, my head will be on the chopping block!"

"I'm sure it won't come to that," Chiron chuckled nervously. "The Oracle may have foretold something. Let's wait and see if a prophecy arises."

"But Rachel's been out of action since Gaia's attempted rise," I cut in.

Chiron frowned. "Oh yes, I forgot, pre-Jackson, we relied on an old mummy in the attic."

"Mummy in the attic?" My question was cut off by a roar from Seymour in the living room.

"I'll go and feed him," Dionysus said. "I need a moment of peace."

Chiron and I sat down at the kitchen table in silence. Chiron's forehead was incredibly creased, as if he was unsure about…well everything. I knew how he felt. It was like my whole world had been turned upside down. Hera, my mother? I never could have guessed.

Chiron got up abruptly. "Let me show you to one of the guest rooms," he said. "Unless, of course, you want to camp out in the desolate Hera Cabin."

I chuckled. "A guest room would be lovely."

We ascended the stairs, to the second floor. Chiron showed me the room Percy Jackson stayed in during his first night at Camp Half Blood. Next to the bed, there was a framed picture of Annabeth and Percy, now eighteen, hanging outside the college in New Rome. Percy wasn't looking at the camera, but at Annabeth, whom had her hair tied up in a scruffy ponytail, but still managed to look like a princess. It was sweet. I caught Chiron smiling when he glanced at the picture. He probably took credit as the matchmaker after forcing Annabeth to give Percy the tour.

There were a few more rooms along the deceptively long corridor. Chiron showed me to the room at the end. The door held a sign that said 'Guest Room No.13". The room was painted a light pink, not so coincidently the same color as my now ever-present glow. I couldn't escape the color!

"It's not much," Chiron said, showing me around the amenities, "but the bed is nicer than the bunks in the cabins, for sure."

I grinned, sitting down on the bed, testing out the mattress. It was covered with a pink bedspread, printed with small poppy buds. Next to the bed was a table that held a golden lamp and a small box of chocolates, an elixir to any bad mood. I chuckled when I noticed a peacock feather sticking out of a vase on top of the dresser, like I needed reminding of my heritage.

"If you need anything, my room is on the ground floor, second door to the right," Chiron said before he closed the door, leaving me to wallow in the silence of the room.

I stood up, wanting to explore the other rooms on the floor. It seemed that the thirteen rooms were each dedicated to one of the twelve Olympians, plus Hestia, who had given up her throne for Dionysus. The Hestia Room had a large fireplace, while the Athena Room had a whole wall lined with books and maps.

Out of nowhere, one of the doors opened further down the hallway. I thought that both Dionysus and Chiron were downstairs? Was it the Mummy in the attic, just wanting a nice nap?

I carefully approached the door. It opened wider as I got closer, until I was standing chest to face with a guy that was a foot taller than me. Instinctively, I screamed.

"Who are you?!"

The boy seemed equally shocked by my presence. I noticed that his hair had a light bluish tint. Odd.

"Who are you?" he responded. Having recovered from his shock, he started to laugh. I could still hear my scream echoing in my mind.

"I'm Clara, the one and only daughter of Hera" I said, disclosing my identity without even thinking that this guy could be an Underworld demon in disguise, though this seemed unlikely. I peered round him slightly, and saw that he'd come out of the Artemis Room, easily recognizable by its silver color scheme.

"I'm Peyton," he chuckled at my introduction, without questioning the legitimacy of my claim. "Son of Selene."


	3. Chapter 3 - Gods versus Titans

"Who?"

Peyton laughed again. What was it with this guy and laughing? "I get that a lot," he said.

"I've never heard of Selene before," I replied. Prior to arriving at Camp Half Blood, I really didn't know that much about Greek Mythology – all I knew came from the Camp Scribe's novels that were apparently 'fiction' for the 'characters' own safety.

"Not many have," Peyton shrugged.

"What's she the goddess of?" I asked. Selene sounded pretty – maybe she had something to do with the ocean?

"She's not a goddess."

"What?"

"What is it with you and questions?" Peyton folded his arms across his chest, blocking my view into the Artemis Room. Hang on…if he was in the Artemis Room, then did that mean Selene had something to do with hunting, or the night sky?

"What is it with you and not answering my questions?" I huffed.

Peyton grinned. "Selene's a titan."

"A titan?" I gasped. It felt like one of those cinematic reveals where none of the audience sees it coming. "That doesn't even make any sense!"

"Well, this _is_ a camp for demigods," he said.

"Yes, demi_gods, _not demi_titans,_" I emphasized.

"Titans came before gods," Peyton explained. "If Gaia, the first immortal being, is still around then surely her children would be too?"

"Fingers crossed she's not still around," I squeaked. The Battle of Camp Half Blood versus Camp Jupiter, which ultimately became the Battle of the Earth, had happened a mere six weeks ago. All the campers were still on edge that a hole would be ripped into the ground and the earth would swallow them up, the goddess seeking unconscious revenge.

"Well, what's Selene the _titan _of, then?" I amended.

"The moon."

"Artemis is goddess of the moon." It would be ridiculous not to know that. I personally thought that every demigod should be given a pamphlet with a who's who for Greek Gods as soon as they entered the boundaries of Camp Half Blood. 'Oh well done with surviving the trip, here's your complimentary god glossary.'

"Titans came before gods," Peyton said.

"You said that already."

"Yeah, well it still stands. Selene claimed the moon before Artemis. Artemis is the goddess of chastity, archery and hunting primarily." Gods could be greedy when it came to claiming objects and ideas.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Why are you staying in the Big House?"

Peyton narrowed his eyes at me in return. "Why are you?"

I gulped. "The cabin I'm supposed to be staying in is…getting refurbished."

"Right, Hera, she's not supposed to have any kids." He nodded. "What a predicament."

"Yes, and Selene isn't supposed to exist."

"In the mortal world, neither are gods."

"Touché," I said, reaching out to shake his hand. He complied, shaking my hand with a firm grip.

"Why have I never seen you before?" I said. "Last question, I promise."

"I was claimed before I got to camp. Selene gave me a scroll to deliver to Chiron, or at least, a silver shadow did – she didn't think that Dionysus and the rest of the gods would be too happy to house the son of a titan at their camp. Chiron said I could stay here."

The presence of a titan was even more powerful than that of a god. If I was annoyed at my mother for not returning any of my calls to the sky, I could hardly imagine how neglected Peyton felt.

"But you're missing out on all the bonfires and roasted marshmallows." I smiled.

Peyton shrugged. "It's not really safe for me to go outdoors. Being the son of a titan means I have twice as much demon pulling power as the rest of you." He seemed proud of this fact, tilting his chin up with superiority.

"As daughter of the Queen of Olympus, I think I'm equally important."

"Do you want to compare battle scars?" Peyton pulled up his shirtsleeve to reveal an ugly raised scar that snaked across his upper arm towards his shoulder. "Got burnt by a chimera when I was travelling here."

"How did you survive?" I leaned in closer to get a better look at the damage.

"I don't know," he said honestly. "I thought I was close to dying."

"Well, you're no Percy Jackson," I chuckled.

"There's no way you're from the Jackson era."

"I barely made it to the Grace era," I huffed. "I was so glad to have avoided Gaia's wakening."

Peyton nodded. "We're lucky."

"How long have you been here?"

"I thought you said you were done with questions?"

"I can't help myself," I laughed.

"I've been hanging out in the Artemis Room for a week now," he said.

I imagined being cooped up all week with no other company accept an angry god and a well-mannered centaur. Over the last week, I'd been moping about not being claimed but otherwise hanging out with Lilac every day down at the beach. The Apollo campers always had a game of volleyball going, although the ball had the occasional spike attached when the Ares campers joined the game. Iris campers created rainbows from the water and the sun that always shone, no matter what the weather was like around of Long Island Sound. A girl I heard Butch call Stephanie was especially good at enhancing the colors.

"I guess you've been pretty bored," I said.

"I don't have to be, now that you're here." He smiled. "You're going to be here for a while, right?"

"Apparently, the beds here are nicer than the bunks in the cabin, so, I guess for the foreseeable future, you'll find me right down the hall." I pointed pointlessly down the corridor.

Peyton stepped back from his guarded position in the doorframe, retreating into his room slightly. I took this as an invitation to come in so followed him into the room.

"Sweet room," I said as I surveyed the minimal furniture. The themes for the Olympian rooms weren't luxurious; they were simply going off the color schemes of the gods. Did Hera's have to be golden pink?

Peyton sat down on the end of his bed. "Better than the street," he said. From his pained expression, I guessed he was speaking from experience, so didn't push for him to elaborate. I'd let a pretty sheltered demigod life up until now. I wasn't exactly prepared for that to change. (Thanks, Mom!)

"So, you've asked me questions, is it OK if I ask you some?"

I nodded. Until this evening, I didn't have any interesting stories to tell. On our first night at Camp, Lilac was telling a devoted audience about how she protected her younger sister from a minotaur before running away from her home in Montana. Clarisse, head of the Ares cabin, always had some war story to tell, most recently retelling the stories about Frank Zhang, the most coveted son of Mars.

"What was your life like before camp?" was his first question.

I struggled to think of a dramatic answer. Instead, I went with the truth. "The same as it is now…my father and I spent a lot of time travelling around the country for his business executive job."

"Sounds banal," Peyton said, though he said it with such reverence he must have meant it as a compliment. I bet that as a titan's son, he never got to relax anywhere.

"Yeah, I pretty much experienced every hotel the United States had to offer."

"What do you think about these rooms?"

"Not as good as California."

"Who's your favorite Greek deity?"

Another question that struck me. If I didn't claim Hera to be my favorite goddess, was she going to get her husband to barbeque me on the spot? Again, I chose to be honest. There was something about Peyton's countenance that brought it out of me.

"I don't know enough about Greek mythology to make a judgement."

"So you feel like you've just been sucked into this world without a choice?"

"On the nose," I sighed, wringing my hands in my lap.

A comfortable silence settled over the both of us as we let the weight of our situation hover. We were outcasts to the 'normal' Half Blood campers, exiled to the Big House because we didn't belong anywhere else. Peyton must have felt the same heavy sadness as I did, as he edged closer next to me.

Before I could offer that we go downstairs and raid the fridge, a loud crash came from the ceiling.

"We're on the second floor," I said, jumping up from the bed.

"That means only one thing," Peyton said as he rushed to the door.

At exactly the same time we both whispered, "the Attic," and we both knew what lay in the attic.

The Mummy.


	4. Chapter 4 - Daughter of Demons

"Is everything alright up there, Clara?" Chiron called up the narrow staircase. I imagined how the loud noise must have disturbed him from a philosophical pondering.

"Everything's fine!" I shouted back, laughing at Peyton pressing his hands to his lips. Apparently, he didn't want Chiron to know that I'd discovered his presence.

"OK, well, I'm down here if you need anything," the centaur said, before retreating back to the living room, where I could just make out Dionysus arguing for a rematch of 'Go Fish'…so much for philosophical pondering.

"Why don't you want Chiron to know that I know you're here?"

"I prefer the cover of darkness."

I snorted. "Does the moon guide you?"

"Are you telling me you don't look to the heavens for answers from your mother?"

"I practically didn't know I had a mother until tonight," I hissed. "Now are we going to spend the rest of the evening questioning each other, or investigating the creepy noise from the creepy attic, where a possibly creepy mummy still lurks?"

Peyton pushed me aside and opened the door with lightning speed, though I probably shouldn't be making any lightning jokes at this point, Zeus might roast me alive.

"I'll race you!" he said, chuckling as he charged down the corridor to the attic hatch. I chased after him, knocking him against the wall to surpass him.

"Ha ha! I win!" I cheered when I jumped up to release the attic door. My fingers barely brushed the ceiling.

"I'll help," Peyton said, interlocking his fingers to give me a foothold. Once my position was secure, he lifted me, with surprising ease despite the weighty and extremely long fabric of my toga, to properly open the attic door.

It made a telltale click that Peyton and I both winced at, not wanting Chiron to gallop upstairs, to find us seeking into a place we weren't supposed to be. Chiron or Mr. D had never said that the attic was forbidden territory, but since the loss of prophetic sight, I guessed they weren't going to be pleased if we snooped around.

I grabbed the ladder before Peyton lowered me to the ground.

"Ladies first?" he asked, gulping at the gloom radiating from the open attic.

"Titans came before gods," I smirked, passing the ladder to him.

Peyton narrowed his eyes in my direction. "You are the nastiest daughter of Hera."

I flipped my Rapunzel hair across one shoulder. "The _only _daughter, I think you mean. Plus, Hera isn't exactly remembered for her civility."

The son of Selene snatched the ladder from my open palm and began to climb, resentment of his titans vs. gods argument evident on his face.

"Next time, don't make such a big deal of your heritage," I grinned.

It took a moment for Peyton to reach the top of the ladder. I watched as his body disappeared into the dark abyss. Waiting a few seconds to give him time to adjust, I called out his name. He didn't respond.

"Peyton, this isn't funny, what's up there?"

"Come and see for yourself!" he jeered.

I took the land in my hands and began to climb, thinking all the way up to the attic that gladiator sandals were not known for their grip. I reached the lip of the attic. Peyton grabbed me under the arms and helped to pull me. He had to step back a few paces in order for my long toga to also be dragged onto the floor.

"You're light," he said, "despite all the gold."

"What a compliment! Had much experience with damsels in distress?" I brushed down my toga. It had taken seconds for the dust of the attic to settle around us.

Peyton whistled, ignoring my sarcasm. "Have you ever seen anything like this?"

"I can't see anything. The light's are off." Although, my glow did help me to recognize my own hand in front of my face.

"Oh, I forgot that godly children couldn't see in the dark."

"I think that only counts for children of the moon titan or goddess," I said.

"I forgot," Peyton said. I searched for a light switch. As soon as I tugged the closest cord, the room was bathed in a musky, meager yellow light.

The treasures of the room were revealed. The attic consisted of a collection of dark wooden tables, littered with mythological memorabilia and a bunch of cobwebs.

Peyton lifted up a shield embellished with the head of Medusa.

"Classic," I said.

We both took a minute to search the shadowed corners of the room. The air seemed to have become muggy from lack of fresh air and frequent visitors. It was the kind of place where you'd expect to find a mummy, because you could just imagine someone dying up here, and having no one find them for days because of all the clutter.

"Someone is in desperate need of a yard sale," I joked. Peyton didn't laugh. He was dusting off some golden compass that was lying on the table closest to him. Instead of having only four points, for the four corners of the Earth, as divided at the beginning of time according to legend, it had five points,

"A five pointed compass?" I asked, coming up behind Peyton to see why he was so interested in it. "Manufacturing error?" He didn't laugh at that either.

Peyton jumped at how close I was behind him. "Clara, back up a bit, you scared the life out of me."

I pointed at the wrapped figure at the east side of the attic. "Turns out, I scared the life out of her, too." The corner of Peyton's mouth lifted into a slight smile. I felt very accomplished.

"Yup, she looks pretty inactive to me," Peyton agreed, striding over to the mummy, as if he was going to check her pulse. "I can't believe her power completely disappeared."

"I kind of feel sorry for the old hag," I said, "you know, because of Rachel Dare, she doesn't get the audience she deserves."

"I think whoever this Rachel girl is, she's doing everyone a favor. The original Oracle of Delphi reeks!" He pinched his nose together with his fingers.

"Well, the smell is pretty off putting." We both backed away from the old Oracle. As I stepped backwards, something crackled under my sandal.

"What is that?" I'd managed to step on some sort of…skin.

Peyton crouched to the floor to inspect the debris. "It looks like a shed snake skin," he clarified.

"That makes sense." I sighed. "Didn't the Oracle used to have snakes pouring out of her mouth or something? Or maybe slithering about on the floor."

"Yeah, but, if this mummy has been out of action since post-Jackson era, that should mean that the snake skin is old."

"Isn't it?"

"It looks fresh."

I felt a shiver up my spine. "OK, don't say stuff like that," I said. "You're giving me the heebie-jeebies."

Peyton apologized. "But if the snake skin doesn't belong to the Oracle, then who does it belong to?"

"You make it sound like there's someone else up here." My temperature shifted to feeling very hot, the muggy air suddenly oppressing my ease of breathing.

"Well, if it wasn't the Oracle that made the crashing noise, then who did?"

"I did," said a voice that was neither Peyton's nor mine.

I screamed very _very _loud. Peyton whacked his hand across my mouth, stifling my outburst. All my nerves were buzzing and the hairs on my arms were on end.

Peyton pushed me behind him, shielding me with an outstretched arm. (I very much appreciated the heroic gesture.)

"Who's there?" he said. I thought this was kind of a stupid think to ask. In horror movies, a murderer never responds if you ask them 'who's there?'

Something moved in the shadows. It slithered up to its full height. For a second, I imagined it to be the embodiment of the Oracle of Delphi, but soon realized the shadowy form was making no move to possess the mummy in the corner, or either of us for that matter.

Dust swirled around the figure as it emerged from the darkness. I think my jaw just about his the floor when I realized the figure was that of a girl, with hair that draped across the floor, at least five foot long. Her long hair was multi-colored, full of opulent reds, blues, greens and purples. Her shoulders, cheeks and forehead were tinged green. She had yellow eyes that glistened in the darkness. The girl wore a simple green slip dress with a plunging neckline and a very short hem that sat half way down her thighs.

"What the?" Peyton stuttered.

"That was not what I was expecting."

The girl smiled. Her teeth looked sharp in her mouth, her jaw very square like the Cheshire cat. "I get that a lot," she said. Her voice lingered in the air.

"Who _are _you?" I asked, because, from the look on Peyton's face, he hadn't recovered from seeing the girl, although the tints of her skin and unnatural yellow eyes led me to believe she wasn't human.

"I'm Lillian," she said, stepping closer to us. Her bare feet stirred the dust and broken snake skin coated the floor.

"I'm Clara, daughter of Hera, although that's not a title I'd like to tote around," I explained, deciding that the best way to deal with this irrational situation was to treat it as if meeting a hidden girl in the creepy attic was something that happened to me all the time. "And my dumbstruck companion is Peyton, son of Selene, who you might not know, if the titan of the moon."

"I know who Selene is," she said, "and I know who Hera is, too."

I nodded. "We usually introduce ourselves with our heritage attached," I said.

"Oh right, social convention," Lillian shook her head. "Right, like I said, I'm Lillian, daughter of Lamia."

"Lamia. I've never heard of that goddess," I said.

"She's not a goddess."

"I've been hearing that a lot lately." I rolled my eyes in Peyton's direction.

"Is she a titan?" he asked, finally finding his voice.

"Nope." Lillian grinned, pleased that she'd trumped us both. "She's a child eating demon."


	5. Chapter 5 - Lillian's Life Story

Child eating demon is not something I wanted to hear in the creepy attic with the creepy mummy. Child eating demon was something I didn't want to hear anywhere.

"How could see be a demon?" I asked. OK, I could get used to the fact that titans wanted to fall in love with mortals, but demons were taking it a step too far.

"She was mortal before she got turned into a demon," Lillian said. "Zeus turned my mother into a snake because Hera was jealous that Zeus loved her." She shot a scathing look at me.

"What? I don't control my mother's tantrums!"

"Well, the darkness ruined her." Lillian turned away from us, her face clouded over. "She fell in love with my father, Lycius, when Hermes released her of her serpent form."

"So she was kind of mortal when you were born?" Peyton tried to catch Lillian's eye.

Lillian just nodded.

"My mother was nine foot tall when I was born," he said. I wasn't sure if he was joking or not.

"What are you doing in the attic?" My eyes flicked over the dusty tables of battle souvenirs and the rotting corpse wrapped in bandages that definitely needed changing. "It's not exactly a luxury setting."

"I'm guessing this camp doesn't cater to the children of demons?" Lillian spat.

"Don't take it personally," Peyton said, "I don't have a place here either." They both stared at me, looking revolted by my demigod status.

"I'm _sorry_, but the two of you should know better than anyone that you don't get to pick your parents." I sighed. "I'm as much of an outsider as you guys are. No one wants to deal with a girl that shouldn't have been born."

Lillian looked apologetic, the corners of her mouth curling into a sympathetic frown. "I don't know why I came here," she said. "I was better off in the Underworld."

"You stayed in the Underworld?!" Peyton's eyes bugged out of his head.

"Seriously, that's the think you're finding hardest to believe?" I chuckled. "It's not the wackiest thing you've heard in the last thirty minutes."

"Demons beat gods," he said.

"Did you not witness the Battle of the Empire State Building?"

"We are _both _post-Jackson era, would you stop bringing him up?"

Lillian cleared her throat to distract Peyton and I from arguing. "Yes, I stayed in the Underworld," she said. "It's kind of like the hometown of all demons."

"But you're only half demon," I pointed out. "Didn't the demons sniff you out and…I don't know, threaten to kill you?"

"It's a good thing Hades is my close personal friend then." Before Peyton could state his disbelief, she elaborated. "Anyone that has a beef with Zeus, the almighty, Hades welcomes with open arms."

I couldn't work Lillian out. If she was half demon, did that make her one part inherently evil? I didn't know how much we should trust what she said. However, Peyton seemed to trust her as much as he trusted the Fates' prediction of the weather.

I asked her, "Do you have an anti-Zeus agenda?"

"Don't you?" she said.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, isn't Zeus acting a bit hypocritical getting all angry at his wife for having an affair, when he's had the longest string of lovers in Greek history?"

I'd never thought of it that way. Lillian obviously knew that. "I thought Zeus was angry because Hera had broken one of her patron ideals, about marriage and family."

"It goes a _lot _deeper than that, kiddo," Lillian said. I wondered what gave her the right to call me kiddo when we looked the same age. It was probably her superior experiences; I didn't know many people, heck I didn't know any people, who could say they came out of the Underworld no harm done.

"Do Mr. D and Chiron know you're up here?" Peyton contributed to the conversation after many moments of silence.

"If they did, do you think I'd still be here?" Lillian ran her hand along the closest table, picking up dust with her finger and blowing into my face. I spluttered. For the daughter of a child-eating demon, she wasn't very nice.

"How did you get to the attic without them noticing?" I smirked, thinking that I'd caught her out. Apparently not.

"Because I'm part demon, I can travel in the shadows like hellhounds," she explained. "It's very convenient if ever I need to make a quick escape."

"Why did you need to make a quick escape?"

"Ignore her, Lillian," Peyton said. "She's very persistent and she asks a lot of questions." He drew his finger across his throat as a signal for me to cut it out.

"Sorry for being inquisitive. If you found the daughter of a demon in the attic, what would you do?"

"I did find one," he argued. "And I'm respecting her right to remain silent."

"That's only if she's committed a crime! Wait…you haven't committed a crime, right?"

Lillian shrugged. "If stealing Hades' helmet of invisibility is a crime, then yeah." She said it so nonchalantly, like she'd just picked up her coffee order at a mainstream café chain.

"You stole-" Peyton, again, slapped his hand over my mouth to stop me from speaking. "Would you cut it out?" I hissed into his palm.

"I just knew you were going to ask why and I'm fed up of the Q and A section." He released his grip around my jaw. "Now, Lillian, would you like to stay up here in the creepy attic or follow me and Miss Chatty downstairs?"

"That's a question!" I screeched.

Lillian laughed. "It's OK, Clara." Her words dripped with condescension. "I'll come downstairs if it would make you both feel more comfortable."

I huffed and puffed with irritation as Peyton pushed me towards the attic door. Luckily, we'd closed it when we arrived so that Mr. D and Chiron on the ground floor wouldn't hear our shenanigans. Peyton opened the hatch, then shoved me down the ladder, showing none of the courtesy he exhibited when we were going _up _to the attic.

When I got to the floor, I watched Peyton help Lillian climb down the ladder. She looked a little unsteady on her feet. She explained, _without _the need to ask, that one of her powers was to take the form of a snake like her mother, and she said that, in her serpent form, it was easier to escape the Underworld unnoticed. Peyton continued to stare at her in awe, while I just rolled my eyes. Of course, she was a shape shifter, as well as ethereally beautiful.

The doted son of Selene led us both towards the Artemis Room. I walked behind Lillian to avoid getting tangled in her uber-long hair, the glowed different colors in the light for the hallway. Brilliant. She glowed as well as I did.

Peyton gestured for her to sit on the bed, just as he had to me not forty minutes ago.

"How quickly a girl can be replaced," I quipped. He looked quizzically at me before he offered to wash Lillian's dusty feet. I wish I could say that was an exaggeration.

Lillian had tracked dirt and dust from the attic hatch to the Artemis Room. If Chiron didn't know we'd been in the attic before, he'd certainly know when he came up the stairs to check on me, as he undoubtedly would as the father figure of camp.

She nodded at his request, so I was sent to get her majesty, the child-eater's daughter, a bowl of water.

"We're going to have to hide you from Chiron," I said. "Actually, I'm going to have to hide you and _you _from Chiron." I motioned towards Peyton, who was using a flannel to wash Lillian's feet with lavender water. (She better be grateful I added soap.) "I'm not to know about his existence," I said for Lillian's benefit.

"Why is this camp trying to keep so many kids a secret?" Lillian murmured. "First you, then him, then me? Is there some kind of outcast outreach program going on here?"

"If there was, I would expect better room service," I joked. Peyton snorted, so I was glad to have him back on my side.

We all cringed at the same time as we heard movement at the bottom of the stairs.

"Clara?" Chiron called.

"Yes?" I responded with a squeak, rushing out of Peyton's room to go and dangle over the banister. If Chiron saw me, maybe he wouldn't be suspicious that I was running a motel for demon children in the Artemis Room?

"Could I come up there a minute? There's someone I'd like to introduce to you."

"Uh," I looked over at Peyton's open door. His eyes widened in my direction. I undetectably shook my head at him when Lillian poked her head round the door too. "Of course, come right up!" My voice wavered as I responded.

We had a few seconds before Chiron got his wheelchair up the stairs, just enough time for me to look unsuspecting in the Hera Room.

I passed Peyton's door.

"Get her out of your room," I barked.

"Where should she go?"

"There are twelve other rooms on this floor – just _hide!_"


	6. Chapter 6 - Hide and Go Meet

"Clara?" Chiron made his way up the stairs. I met him, completely non-suspiciously, on the landing.

"Hey Chiron, what's up?" I grimaced.

"Have you hurt yourself?" He raised his eyebrow at my taunt expression. I caught my reflection in the mirror at the end of the hall. It looked like a ton of bricks had just landed on my foot and I was trying my hardest not to scream.

"No, no, I'm good," I said, contorting my smile to resemble that of a clown. Wow, that was _way _better.

Chiron nodded. He obviously didn't believe me. I followed him as he walked to the Hera Room.  
>"Have you settled in OK?"<p>

We both looked around the room. It didn't look like I'd been hanging out in here for the past hour. There was only a faint butt print on the duvet where I'd initially sat down to get my bearings. Chiron seemed put out.

"I didn't have many belongings," I covered. "You know, being in the _Hermes _cabin and all." This explanation satisfied the centaur for about three seconds. "I thought I'd just take a nap, you know, I was feeling kind of worn out after being Claimed." Why was I saying 'you know' so much? Was I trying to sound like I'd been up in the forbidden attack, frolicking in the dust with a titan and a snake?

When Chiron's eyes darted to the neat bed, I bounced down on it, ruffling the covers.

"You've been awfully quiet," he said.

"Are you used to people talking in their sleep?" I joked, nudging him in the ribs. He didn't appreciate that, but his eyes clouded over. He must have been experiencing some fond memories of the Morpheus campers.

"Well, I came up here to introduce you to someone," Chiron cleared his throat. "He's sort of like you, in the sense that he doesn't have a place here…just yet."

"Ahhhhh, really?" I said probably too dramatically to be nonchalant.

"Yes, come on," he replied, leading me out the room. Together we progressed down the hall. I tried not to pre-empt where Chiron was going to stop, so walked past the Artemis Room. He gently grabbed my swinging arm and pulled me back to the door.

Chiron knocked.

There was a loud crash inside.

Chiron knocked harder. Within a second, the door had opened by a centimeter.

"Yes?" Peyton answered.

"What was the noise?"

"Oh nothing, just rearranging some furniture," Peyton improvised. His blue hair stood on end in panic. Great, we looked like the most suspicious pair in existence.

"Peyton, I've got someone for you to meet," Chiron said.

The son of Selene easily played along. "Someone else is living here?"

Chiron grinned, pushing his hand on the door so we could both see into the ornately silver room. Peyton stood directly behind the door looking a little sheepish. I tried to convey with just my eyes if he'd managed to hide Lillian affectively, but Peyton just looked confused at my glares. So much for covert messaging.

"Clara, this is Peyton," Chiron clapped his hand proudly on Peyton's shoulder, like a father would a son if the son had just scored a home run.

"Peyton, you say?" I held out my hand for him to shake. He barely contained a snort as we shook hands. I squeezed his a little too firmly, making him yelp once I'd loosened my grip.

He shook out his crippled hand. "Yup, the son of Selene."

I nodded. "Cool."

"Clara, you don't seem surprised at Peyton's heritage?"

"Well," I nervously chuckled, "is it any weirder than mine?"

It was my turn for Chiron to clap his hand on my shoulder. He grinned at me affectionately. "I suppose not. I'm sure you two will get on like a house on fire."

Peyton shot me a furtive glance. I poked my tongue out of him around Chiron's side.

"I'm sure you'll be spending a lot of time together," Chiron continued. "Campers usually complete activities with those of their cabin, but we'll just have to pair you two up. You'll make the perfect team."

I rolled my eyes. I was going to be stuck with Peyton indefinitely?

"That sounds great, sir," Peyton said, shuffling Chiron towards the door. The centaur seemed willing to leave and let us get 'acquainted', until he saw the closest door was open. Most of the contents of the closet were lying on the floor

"You might want to clean that up, son," Chiron said. "Dionysus will have a field day if he finds any of the guest rooms have been left untidy." He moved over to the closet, with the aim of shutting the door, until Peyton grabbed his forearm.

"Don't bother with that, Chiron, I'll get Clara to help me clean up."

"I'm not the maid!" I said indignantly, before Peyton used his eyes to say 'go with me on this'. I stumbled before saying, "of course, if it helps us bond, then of course I'll help you!" Why was I saying of course so much? Dang it!

Chiron gave me the most ridiculous look as I swung my arm in a gung-ho movement.

"Alright, I'll leave you both to it." Chiron made his way to the exit unassisted, though what I'd like to have done was wheel him out of earshot.

"You seriously cannot act natural," Peyton said once he'd closed the room door. "Of course, of course? What was that all about?"

"I panicked," I said.

"We all did," Lillian appeared from behind the open closet door. It turned out that Peyton had opened the closet door, not in the hope of shoving Lillian inside, as I doubted her abundance of hair would have fit, to create a shadow in which the snake girl could disappear.

I jumped at her presence. "What are you doing?"

"Well, you didn't give us much time to find a legitimate hiding place!" Lillian said. "It was either that or I was going to roll under the bed."

"Everyone checks under the bed for monsters," Peyton said.

"It suits her, then," I whispered under my breath.

"At least we were inventive. Saying 'cool' about my mom was the least prepared you could have been."

"Sorry," I said quickly. "I'm not used to dealing with threatening situations."

"We can tell," Lillian said, but instead of continuing with the 'let's-all-make-fun-of-Clara' theme she said, "you did an OK job."

"Thanks," I said. "I guess one of your superpowers came in handy."

Lillian smiled. "That's not even the best thing I can do."

"You can do more than shadow travel and shape shift?" Peyton looked even more awed towards Lillian, if that was even possible.

She nodded. "I'll show you all of my repertoire sometime." Lillian bounced over to the silver bed, adorned with cushions and pillows. There was a hunting bow strung up above the headboard. "But it's getting late, and I need to crash." She snuggled into the duvet, her long hair trailing to the floor.

Peyton looked uncomfortable. "That's my bed," he said obviously.

"As Clara said, there are twelve others on this floor." Lillian smirked while giving me a small high five. I liked it when we nice to each other. Having the daughter of a child-eating demon angry at you was not something I wanted to experience.

Peyton huffed for a second before agreeing that he'd go and sleep in the Apollo Room, which was just across the corridor. He swore that he'd never get to sleep, as the Apollo Room was filled with light that just _would not _stop glowing.

"It's kind of like you, Clara." Peyton pulled at my blonde hair, so different from my mother's raven locks. "Do you know when the glow wears off?"

"Maybe it's her super power?" Lillian added sleepily.

"Much good that'll do me," I said. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Will you sneak some breakfast for me?" Lillian whispered into the pillow. Her eyes were closed. She must have enjoyed being in a soft bed. I didn't imagine that the Underworld knew what 'comfortable' meant.

"We'll try," I promised. "Night!"

I made my way back to the Hera Room. Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day.


	7. Chapter 7 - Mother of Clara

Somewhere on Mount Olympus, Hera was running. She had been running for days, _weeks _to escape the wrath she knew was coming when she finally revealed the truth about her excursion to Earth all those years ago. She thought that if she gave herself a head start, she would be free and safe.

So much for that theory.

It seemed like no matter how far away she was; she would always feel the sky rip open and lightning break like her heart. She would always experience the pain secondhand, through the rumbling of the ground and the torment of the clouds.

_Have I made a mistake? _She wondered. _If it weren't for that stupid demigod, Percy Jackson, I wouldn't be in this mess. My daughter would be safe. _

Instead of resenting her daughter's existence, Hera thought of her darling as the apple of her eye, despite only getting to hold her for minutes after she was born, before she was taken away, to grow up someplace where she wasn't likely to get eaten by her husband. Eating unwanted children seemed to run in the family.

She had protected her for as long as she could. The girl had never experienced the same trauma, as other demigods would have at her age. She never had to battle demons with a weighted sword. She never had to hide in sewers, for fear of being on open ground.

Her daughter had glowed like a sun in Hera's arms. Her cheeks were always lit with a rose colored tint. She was glad that her daughter didn't inherit her own dark hair; it would make her more conspicuous, like the abundant children of Aphrodite.

Hera had waiting until the last minute to claim her daughter, knowing that any later would increase the dysfunctional relationship she and her child already had. Despite being chased by evil, Hera had never been more proud of her daughter, when she ascended into the heir, and was dressed in the royal robes of Mount Olympus. She was always a princess, but now she resembled one.

The glow of her daughter's skin reminded Hera that she was twice as powerful as any normal demigod offspring. Hera was Queen of the Universe – the title had to count for something.

Unsurprisingly, because of Hera's unnaturally jealous demeanor, many gods and goddesses had rejected to help her when she fled Mount Olympus. For the first time, Hera cursed her horrid reputation, wishing that she'd shown some kindness to the lovers of her husband, Zeus. Maybe then he'd be more understanding.

Hera had wracked her brain for a place where she'd be safe, where no evil would touch her. She had tried to think if any immortal owed a favor to her, but she'd come up short. But then, when she thought the lightning would strike her soul, she thought of something.

Zeus had been hidden from Kronos on the island of Crete. That wasn't _that _far from Mount Olympus, if Hera became the ninety-foot version of herself. She could stride across the Atlantic in one step.

But she was tired. She had no idea, obviously, that Claiming would take so much out of her. She'd used the last of her energy to bequeath the royal robes to her daughter, but on second thought, it didn't help her to stay under the radar. A golden toga was pretty out there.

Hera had thought she was safe when she arrived on the island. Flowers bloomed under her feet, and cattle grazed her lovingly with their heads. She wondered why no one else had wanted to claim the cow as one of their sacred animals. Demeter had once said they were bad for the environment…

Hera found a nice cave to stay in. She had laughed at the thought of a 'nice cave', after being so used to living in luxury in her suites on Mount Olympus. Anything was better than being crushed to dust by the angry Olympians...and angry Titans…come to think of it, almost everyone was angry with Hera. Was it her fault that Zeus had given her custody of Jason Grace? Was it her fault that Gaia woke because of him and his meddling friends? OK, maybe.

Just when she thought she was safe, a dark shadow rippled across the cave wall. Thick black smoke filled the cavern, making Hera choke and cough. Darkness clouded over her eyes.

"Hera," a raspy voice echoed through her sanctuary.

The goddess's eyes widened in horror.

"Tut tut, girl," it said, "you have broken the sacred rule of your patron value." Hera felt a presence draw near. The darkness obscured her vision, but she could feel a hand clasp around her throat, tightening with every word.

"Looks like you're trapped." A crackle sounded, grating against the stone. "What. A. Pity."

Hera gasped, her scream the last thing she could hear before everything swayed beneath her feet. She met the ground with a sickening thud, her pink glow fading to a flicker, and then nothing.

Nothing at all.

"So, what's for breakfast?" I chirped when I pulled up a bench next to Peyton. He squirmed when I sat down.

We were both trying not to take it personally that the other campers were keeping their distance. When we had descended from the Big House, the crowd had parted, leaving a meter between the next closest person and me. I thought that these kids would be less likely to estrange others, seeing as we were all freaks of nature as godly offspring, but it turned out that you could be even weirder than a demi-god.

You could be a demi-titan.

Chiron had announced who Peyton was once the camper had trudged sleepily to the dining pavilion. I needed no second introduction; I could hear my name being whispered in the crowd, rolling of everyone's tongues like poison. Sheesh, was this what Percy Jackson felt like when he was Claimed as the son of Poseidon?

Actually, I probably felt a lot worse.

People kept their distance from Peyton like they thought he was going to summon Kronos from Tartarus. I wanted to point out that the last guy to do that had been a demi-god, and way less suspecting that Peyton was.

"I'm not in the mood for breakfast," he grumbled. As predicted, he hadn't slept very well in the Apollo Room.

"At least steal some for Lillian," I said. She'd slept beautifully. So beautifully in fact, that when I went to wake he (as I told Peyton he was no longer to occupy the room until Lillian chose a different place to sleep) she had been completely unresponsive.

If she didn't like bacon, she'd just have to stuff it.

Peyton watched the other campers as they made their way to the offering pit. They each said a few words for their mother or father, scraping a portion of their food into the pit, before returning to their tables. Ever since Annabeth and Percy had started dating, the seating plan had become less rigid. Campers were allowed to sit with people that didn't belong to the same cabin. Of course, the Aphrodite girls abused this rule, using it as an excuse to sit on various boys' laps.

Everyone's eyes seemed to linger on us, but more especially Peyton. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't curious to see what would happen if he offered food to his mother. Would nothing happen? Would he get charred by the fire? Would he spontaneously combust?

Fed up of the furtive glances people kept delivering my way, I gathered up my plate and walked over to the offering pit, leaving Peyton to brood on his own.

When I was an unclaimed camper, I had decided to offer my food to Hestia. She didn't have any children herself, and I think a lot of people underappreciated her contributions to modern society. Around the fire, I always felt a little warmer than Lilac, and I liked to think my offerings were the reason for my heated favoritism.

However, I'd never offered anything to Hera. Why would I? She had contributed much to society – only jealous, which was an emotion Aphrodite sparked anyway. But this time, I felt the desire to pray to my mother. It seemed like the right thing to do, as she was probably in more trouble that I was.

"Hey Mom," I whispered, feeling silly. "I just wanted to let you know that I hope you're OK. Thanks for claiming me and everything, I just wish you weren't the goddess of marriage. It kind of ruined your rep." I laughed a little before dumping all the food on my plate into the pit.

I hoped Hera liked pomegranate.


	8. Chapter 8 - Drowning Sorrows

The first camp session of the day was always Ancient Greek. No one really liked attending, as it was the only 'school subject' offered and attendance was mandatory. Chiron was the primary teacher and liked to make us practice saying things like 'Can I borrow that saber tooth sword?' or 'Your armor looks especially shiny this evening.' However, Annabeth, probably the most famous daughter of Athena since she brought back the Parthenos and escaped inevitable death, was also one of the teachers. She made weekly excursions to Camp Half Blood from the university in New Rome to take over some of the sessions. A lot of the time campers sidetracked her from conjugating Greek verbs, so instead of learning all the forms of 'to eat', she recounted the tales of the Argo II.

Unfortunately, this morning was not an Annabeth session.

Peyton and I collectively decided to skip the introduction to Greek Gravestones, believing that Chiron would be cool with us laying low for a while. Instead, we wondered over to the Canoe Lake, because you couldn't get more isolated than that.

When we were safely at the docks, and away from anyone's prying eyes, Lillian appeared from the shadow of a nearby oak tree. She didn't make herself known as soon as she slinked out of the shadows, so as soon as she said 'hi!' I was _this _close to falling in the water.

"Did you save me any food?" she asked, flopping herself down on the lakeside and dipping her pearlescent toes into the water. Ripples floated to the other edge of the lake.

I passed her a folded napkin of bacon. She looked at it with skeptical eyes before putting a piece of the crispy meat in her mouth. Her mouth curved into a smile.

"Look, Peyton, she's discovered the wonders of bacon!" I clapped.

"I can't imagine there's much food variation in the Underworld," he said, pulling boats out of the storeroom. He placed them in the water with ease, like they weighed as much as a feather. It was kind of intimidating.

Lillian sighed. "A girl can never have too many pomegranates," she said. The mention of the fruit made me think of the offering I'd made. I wondered if it had helped Hera at all, or just been sent into a void. I'd overheard Chiron discussing with Dionysus that Hera had fled from Olympus. Would the offering still get to her if that was the case?

"Do you want to come canoeing with us?" Peyton asked Lillian as he pulled off his freshly administered camp t-shirt.

When Chiron had announced his arrival officially at breakfast, he'd been given a shirt to wear like a badge of honor. Somehow, it didn't look the same on him as everyone else. I much preferred his silvery grey top that displayed the logo of 'The Moon Shakers', an indie band he'd been obsessed with.

Lillian stared for a second at his bare chest. The scars I'd been shown we all the more prominent in the morning light. She gasped a little, when he turned round, at how the scars twirled around his back.

"I'll come in the water in a sec," she said. "I just want to sit in the sun for a while."

"Not much of that in the Underworld, either," I said.

Unlike Peyton, I hadn't been given a camp shirt. The golden toga I'd been wearing since I was claimed had just shorted into a nightdress when I'd climbed into bed, the golden sandals just melting off my feet. When I'd woken up, the toga was back, although not quite as long as it was yesterday. The fabric waved around my ankles, this time, and in addition to the multitude of bangles that coated my arms, the toga had given me gauzy wings of fabric that fluttered delicately at my elbow.

I wondered if the toga did swim wear?

Sure enough, when I dipped my hand in the water to test its temperature, the fabric become a one piece pink gold swimming suit, with the gauzy wings attacking as a little skirt around my waist.

"OK, remind me to get one of those," Lillian said, witnessing my outfit change. "Is it attached to your skin or something?"

"I don't know," I said honestly. "I just know I haven't been able to take it off since Claiming."

"Maybe its like your glow," Peyton said. He was sat in one of the two canoes, with a set of oars at the ready. "The toga will wear off in a while."

I looked at my hands. The pinkish glow I was emitting didn't show any signs of letting up.

"Are you coming in, or what?" Peyton crossed his arms. "After I prepared your canoe and everything."

"I'm coming, I'm coming," I whined, walking down the pier towards the tied up boat that _was _ready and waiting for me. "Are we going to race?"

"What would be the point? I would win!" Peyton laughed. Lillian splashed him with some water with her toe.

"Just because I haven't faced a Minotaur, doesn't mean I don't know how to battle," I smirked. Peyton had no idea how well versed I was in water sport activities. My father had once set up a hotel devoted to canoeing on the coast of France, and _I _was the summer champion.

"Boys against girls," Lillian cheered.

"But there are two of you!" Peyton argued.

"Yeah, and there are two of you," I jeered. "You and your ego!"

Lillian laughed so hard she snorted, while Peyton's moody smirk burst into a smile.

"Fine," he said, "you're on!"

Instead of climbing into the canoe with me, and helping with the oar power, Lillian slipped into the water. Her slip dress didn't turn into a magical swimsuit, instead the fabric floated around her body. Her hair, which must have weighed a ton once it got wet, became a mass of wavy watercress.

Instead of having to row to the other side of the lake legitimately, Lillian pushed the boat from behind, propelling me forward like a rocket. Peyton laughed and shouted that we were cheating, but caught up with us at a surprising speed.

I liked to think that our laughter spread across the camp to remind everyone that we were humans too. (Very philosophical, I know.)

Just as Lillian and I were going to win the race and reach the other side of the lake, the boat stopped. I couldn't see Lillian's face in the water, only her mass of hair was floating on the surface of the water.

"PEYTON!" I screamed, despite him being a foot away from me. "Lillian!" I didn't have to say much else. Peyton immediately saw that Lillian hadn't resurfaced and without hesitation, dived into the lake.

What had happened? I bit my lip so hard it bled as I waited for Lillian to be rescued. After thirty impatient seconds, my frazzled mind thought the best thing to do was dive after them.

Now, I wasn't the best swimmer. I might have been the champion of water sports, but that relied on me staying in the boat. When it came to actually being in the water, I was as uncomfortable as a rhino.

I slipped under the water. The stirred up silt at the bottom of the lake instantly clouded my vision. I could just about make out Lillian's opulent skin glinting in the water. Peyton had his arms around her, and was kicking his way to the surface, but something was stopping him from making any progress.

A part of Lillian's hair was trapped.

I swam as best as I could to where they were, my lungs already burning from the pressure of the water. My hands grasped the rocks at the bottom of the lake, but they were covered in slime and I couldn't get a good enough grip. Peyton struggled some more with Lillian, who was lying lifeless in his arms.

Finally, I managed to grab the edge of the stone and pull it upwards with all my might. Instantly, Peyton and Lillian shot to the surface, with me close behind.

There was a lot of gasping when we broke the surface of the water. Peyton offered me his outstretched leg to help me get to the edge of the lake. In a minute, Lillian was deposited on the pier, water running off her skin and hair.

Peyton helped to hoist me out of the water, then we both crowded around Lillian, as unresponsive as she was this morning.

"What happened?" Peyton asked, panic rising in his voice.

"I don't know," I shook my head as I pressed my ear against Lillian's chest. She was still breathing. "She was fine one second and the next she was drowning, I don't know what to do, what should we do? Is she going to die?" My voice became a squeak as I choked back a sob.

Peyton pressed a hand to Lillian's ribs, hoping to dispel the water from her lungs. He repeated this action whilst water ripped down his chin. I didn't know whether it was fresh or salt water from his tears.

Suddenly, Lillian's eyes opened.

They were a piercing yellow, like a snake. Peyton and I stared.

But instead of coughing up half the lake, Lillian spoke.

"You should both be dead."


	9. Chapter 9 - Strawberry Shouts

"You should both be dead."

No one spoke. The final word hung in the air like fog, surrounding the three of us as we wheezed from our near death experience. Lillian's eyes had returned to normal as soon as the words had left her lips, after which she coughed up half the lake as predicted.

"What happened?" Lillian whispered, her voice so weak I could barely hear it.  
>"That's what we were going to ask you," Peyton said. He was clutching Lillian's left hand, his thumb running over her palm. I held her other hand, squeezing it occasionally.<br>"You nearly drowned, Lillie," I said. Lillian gave a weak smile at the nickname. Yes, I might have only known her for a day, but I'm sure saving someone's life counted for, like, two years worth of friendship.  
>"I did?" She shivered, her eyes widening in panic. She let go of our hands and hugged her arms. "I think I can still feel the water weighing down on me."<p>

"You'll be fine," Peyton said. He stretched up to the grassy verge, grabbing a towel to wrap around her shoulders. He tossed me an identical towel that felt warm against my goose-pimpled skin.

"So you don't remember telling us that we were meant to be dead?" I said.

Peyton shot me a look of contempt, but there was no subtler way to say that it sounding like Lillian wanted to kill us.

She stood up, water running off her hair as she did so. "I did what?!"

"Your eyes went all…yellow," I explained. "With a black slit for a pupil." The burning yellow irises still lingered in my mind, like a flaming brand.

"You're voice changed," Peyton continued when I couldn't. "You said that Clara and I…should be dead."

"What did I mean by that?"

Peyton shrugged. "If you don't know, we don't know."

"If you don't know," I added, "it wasn't you that said it."

Then, both Peyton and Lillian gave me a funny look.

"What?"

"Well, if Lillian can't remember saying that you and I should be dead, then she didn't say it!"

"That's the same statement, just slightly different wording!" Peyton sighed.

I rolled me eyes. "You said yourself that Lillie's voice changed. It must not have been her saying it. Maybe she was…possessed?"

"POSSESSED?!" Lillian screamed.

"Clara, do you have to be so insensitive?"

"You asked for an explanation! Gods, ever since you found Lillian, seconds after you found _me, _I can't say anything right!" I shouted. Tendrils of my wet blonde hair curled around my face and tickled my back as I shrugged the damp towel off my shoulders, ready for a fight. "May I remind you that I _saved _her life, and you haven't ever said _thank you!"  
><em>"Clara," Peyton began.

"No! Don't 'Clara' me! You've been looking at me like I'm dirt. Just because I'm a demigod doesn't make me any less special than you."

Peyton looked hurt. Good.  
>"I didn't mean to make you feel-"<br>"Well, you did," I shouted before I ran off, not caring about the direction, only the chance to be away from the two people who had the best chance of understanding me, but didn't.

"Clara, what's wrong?"

Lilac had found me. I'd run out to the strawberry fields, and had curled up in between the vines of ripe fruit. The red berries were squashed under my feet, covering my toes in what looked like blood.

I sniffled in response.

"You can tell me anything you know," she said. I sighed. Her name reminded me too much of the drowned snake girl that no one else knew about.

I nodded, knowing that Lilac was being sincere.

"You weren't at Ancient Greek," she pointed out, folding her legs underneath her skirt so that she could sit down next to me. She placed her hand over the crushed strawberries. In a second, the fruit reformed. She held it out for me.

Taking it gently, I placed it in my mouth, the sweet flavor bursting on my tongue. "I didn't feel like it."

"No one feels like it," Lilac laughs. "But it's mandatory."

"I have a feeling that Chiron won't mind I skipped out," I said. "You know, what with the circumstances."

Lilac looked down, ashamed. The Demeter Cabin hadn't been all that welcoming of me since they'd found out I was the spawn of the goddess of marriage. Perhaps I'd be punished by never being allowed to eat cereal again.

"I noticed that Peyton wasn't there either. Were you with him?"

The way she was questioning me told me that she wouldn't mind if I didn't answer. But I couldn't help but feeling trusting towards a girl that would risk permanent stains to her favorite sarong just to sit with me.

"I wish I wasn't," I said. "It turns out the son of a titan doesn't make a great friend."

"You've barely known him five minutes," Lilac said as the voice of reason. Trust her to see the good in everything, no matter if they were human, god, titan, or failed crop.  
>"Five minutes is enough to find out if someone is a jerk face." Just thinking about how he fawned over Lillian made my blood curdle. I didn't understand why I was feeling such an intense emotion towards this guy; in the past, I'd always been someone to feel so-so about everything.<p>

"I think you should give him a chance," Lilac chided. "He gave you one."

"Everyone should have been more accommodating to us," I said. "It's so unfair to be ostracized just because of who you're parents are."

Lilac nodded. "I think so too, and I'm going to talk to Katie about letting you sit with us at dinner. You shouldn't be so isolated." She placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "But I'm guessing that Peyton isn't all you're upset about?"

I shook my head. "Something happened at the lake." I knew Lilac would just let me talk, so I did. I told her about Lillian. I told her about almost drowning. I told her about the snake eyes and the death wish and the general rejection I was feeling from my mother and Peyton.

"At least your mom gave you a really cute dress," Lilac joked, trying to cheer me up. My swimsuit had transformed as soon as I was dry back to a floor length toga. The extra fabric had made my fleeing to the strawberry fields difficult, as my feet kept snagging the hemline.

I couldn't help but chuckle. "I don't think I wanted to be wearing a toga for the rest of my life."

"I hear they're all the rage in Delphi." Lilac smiled.

Something in my brain clicked. "What did you say?"

Lilac looked flustered. "I was just continuing the joke," she said. "I know it wasn't that funny, maybe I should work on that."

"No, it's not that the joke was bad!" I laughed. "But, did you say Delphi?"

She nodded.

"Where have I heard that before?"

"If you were in Ancient Greek, you would have known," Lilac bumped my shoulder, mock-scolding me. "It's where the Oracle came from, hence why she was called the Oracle of Delphi. It's like, a big place for prophecies."

"Prophecies…" I mumbled, more to myself than to Lilac. "Do you know much about Lamia?"

"The child-eating demon, Lillian's mom?" Lilac shrugged. "Just that Hera's wrath blinded her," Lilac's forehead creased as she tried to remember the rest of the story. "And…and Zeus gave her the gift of prophecy so that she could kind of see."

"That's right!" I shouted a little too loudly. Birds that had been nesting in the nearby trees fled at the sound.

"So?"

"So do you think that when Lillian turned all snake demon when she resurfaced that she was delivering a prophecy?"

"Clara, that's ridiculous!" Lillian grinned, not taking me seriously. "The power of sight has been inactive ever since Jason Grace's mission and recapture Hera."

"HERA!" I shouted again. "Of course! Of course this has to do with my mom." I got up, rubbing the strawberry pips off of my hands. "Lilac, I have to go! You've been a great help!"

I didn't give her enough time to respond before I shot off back to the Big House, hoping to find the snake girl and the jerk face himself. If I was right, we were in _big _trouble.


	10. Chapter 10 - Lilac Epiphanies

"PEYTON! LILLIE!" I screeched, my lungs burning with the volume of my voice. I ran as fast as I could in my stupid toga dress. Why did the strawberry fields have to be so far away from the Big House?

I panted, my breath becoming short as I pushed my muscles to the limit, swinging my arms to gain more momentum. Suddenly, my skirt wasn't an issue. The magical toga transformed into a short jumpsuit, the fabric allowing ease of moment as I sprinted to the Big House.

"PEYTON!" I screamed again. Other campers that were dispersing from Sword Fighting and Volleyball gave me quizzical looks as I flew past them. I was used to the glares. Instead of fixating on how their eyebrows were all creased and their smiles were turned to frowns, I focused on my mission.

Let Peyton and Lillie know.

I practically tripped up the steps of the porch and charged through the door. Peyton and Lillie were sat at the kitchen counter. They both look startled when I crashed into the room, springing apart. It took me a moment to realize there had barely been a millimeter of space between them when I came in.

I flopped to the ground like I had no bones.

"Oh my gosh, Clara!" Lillie jumped off her seat and rushed over to me. She fanned my face with her hands. Her hair was mostly dry from the canoeing adventure and it tickled my face as she leant over me.

"Give her some room to breath," Peyton said, taking Lillie's shoulder and pulling her back. "Clara, what is it?" He passed me a glass of water that he'd filled from the sink. The icy liquid ran down my burning throat with ease.

"Snake eyes…" I wheezed.

Lillie flinched, probably thinking I was there to shout at her some more. Her eyes clouded with tears that threatened to spill.

"No, Lil," I said, finally getting my breath back. Gosh, I was out of shape. "I mean, there was something about your eyes. Lilac thought the same thing I did. The manic voice wasn't you. You don't want to kill us. It was a prophecy."

Peyton's eyebrows met his hairline. He sank back into one of the squishy couches in the living room. His face had blanched. "A prophecy. Clara, are you sure?"

"As sure as I am that I'm Hera's daughter," I said. Swearing on my mother seemed to be the best I could do at the moment, having momentarily lost my identity since being claimed as the Princess of Olympus.

"But aren't prophecy's normally longer than just one line?" Lillian asked, her eyes all clear. With the relief of not being a midnight murderer, she'd sobered, instantly the most serious of our trio.

"And don't they usually rhyme?" Peyton added, having found his head.

"Well, she didn't give us a couplet, so how are we meant to know it didn't rhyme?" I said, a hint of a smile in my voice.  
>The son of Selene smirked and I knew that I was forgiven.<p>

"We have to talk to Chiron," Lillian said.

"Well, we have to," I said. "He still doesn't know you exist."

"Oh," Lillian chuckled, "Right, I'm still invisible."

"I don't understand," Peyton said. "I thought that the prophetic powers had been retracted since Jason and Hera?" His eyes widened. "Oh. Hera."

I nodded. "It's my mother. She must have done something….perhaps to warn us about something?"

Peyton stroked his chin. "That's all very ambiguous."

"Lillie hasn't exactly given us any specifics," I noted.

Lillian cleared her throat. "Perhaps we need to do something to entice the prophecy to return. We can't just sit here and wait for days to learn every line."

We all thought for a minute. "How about we go to Clovis?" I suggested. "Maybe you could dream the rest of the prophecy?"

Lillian squirmed. "I'm meant to be invisible to everyone. I can't exactly go and lie down in the Morpheus Cabin."

"I've got it!" Peyton clicked his fingers, just to emphasize his epiphany. "Why not go back to the attic."

Lillian and I looked at each other in fear.

"You want us to go up there again, by choice?" I gulped.

"To the attic!" Peyton declared.

"Please, you can't!" Hera cried. She'd awoken from the haze that had surrounded her body, making her feeling drowsy and light-headed.

Her attacker didn't show mercy. They pulled a large piece of black cloth from around their back and draped it across the Queen of Olympus's skin. The fibers burned her when she came into contact with it. As she wriggled from the attackers grasp, she could see the trails of burns left by the cloth.

She screamed, her wrists caught in the hands of her assailant.

Hera tried to change shape, thinking that her peacock formation would be immune to the burning fabric, but the pain made her see white sparks. It was too much effort. Instead, she shrank, her nine-foot goddess form melting away so that she was the size of a mortal.

"Please, show mercy!" she screeched, the pain radiating around her whole body, no matter what size.

The attacker didn't listen.

"I don't like this idea," I said. The three of us were standing at the bottom of the attic stairs. With Chiron out teaching Archery, we didn't have to worry about him finding out about our attic excursion.

No matter how much dissent Lillie and I gave, Peyton was determined for us to venture into the place I wish I could un-see.

"Clara, strengthen up," Peyton said.

"Sure, let me just battle a minotaur first. I think that would really help my self confidence."

Peyton sighed. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and squeezed me close to his chest. Lillie frowned a little.

"You have to stop thinking just because the only adventure you've experienced is a curly water slide at your dad's latest hotel," he said. "You're part of this prophecy too."

"Right, otherwise you'd dispose of me and run of into the sunset with Lillie," I said, with a smile on my face so that he'd know I was joking. Lillie blushed but Peyton just cleared his throat.

"Sorry," he whispered. I'd worked it out that the reason Peyton and Lillie were sat millimeters away from each other was telling of the new feelings that had blossomed between them. I wasn't one to judge on time – my dad and Hera must have only had a few weeks together when he was in New York to scout out hotel locations. But I _was _one to worry about abandonment, because everyone knew that three was an odd number.

"Let's get on with it then," I said, shaking his hand from my shoulder. "I'm so near losing my nerve."

Peyton nodded. "Ladies first?"


	11. Chapter 11 - Child of Prophecies

"This is a bad idea, and I want it on the record that I didn't approve this idea, so that when Dionysus turns us into grape vines, he can show me mercy," I said, as I climbed up the lungs of the ladder first. "You're dissent is duly noted," Peyton chuckled, holding the bottom of the ladder steady. "Lillie, you go next."  
>"Woah, Peyton, you really don't want to come up here." I held my hand out for Lillie to grab as she made her way to the top of the ladder. "You better get up her in the next three seconds or something's going to eat us."<br>"Of course, I'll use my titan powers to vanquish evil."  
>"Do you have titan powers?" To have powers attached to your heritage wasn't something unusual. Every time Hazel Levesque visited from New Rome, she'd bring up jewels from the earth for the Aphrodite campers to fashion into jewelry and sell at the R.O.F.L co-op.<br>Peyton shrugged. "I've never really tried anything."  
>"You could always stand under the moon and wait for something to happen."<br>"I think that's only for werewolf transformations," Peyton laughed as he reached the top of the ladder, and worked on folding it in on itself. "Do you have any powers?"  
>"Apart from this sweet toga?" I gestured to my toga, no longer a jumpsuit having returned to its floor length feature. "Nope. I don't know what kind of powers a child of Hera would have."<br>"What about inherent evilness? Your mom's done a lot of bad things." Lillie smiled until she noticed Peyton trying to pull the attic door shut. "Don't close the hatch," she screeched, resting her hand on Peyton's arm. "There's not a lot of light in here."  
>"Fancy a half demon being scared of a demon." I kicked my feet around the floor, making dust rise. "You spent most of your time in the Underworld."<br>"This place is creepier than the Underworld trust me," Lillian shook her shoulders.  
>"I knew not to trust Percy and Annabeth's tales of Tartarus. It seemed all too cinematic." I smiled. Peyton left the hatch open, as Lillian requested, but began to push the two of us further into the attic.<br>We wondered towards the back, trailing our hands across the dust infested memorabilia of hero's quests. The wrapped mummy sat languidly on a chair, emitting the foulest smell imaginable.  
>"I can see why we upgraded to Rachel." I pinched my fingers over my nose. "The Oracle smells disgusting."<br>"So would you if you'd been around for thousands of years." Peyton took a step towards the mummy, reaching a finger out to poke her.  
>"Don't touch her!" I shouted. "What happens if you kill her? You don't want that on your head."<br>"She's already dead," Peyton pointed out. "I just want to know how to…activate her."  
>"I think she only speaks when she wants to," Lillie said. "Maybe we should have consulted someone who's had a prophecy given."<br>"OK, sure, let me just get Percy Jackson on the phone…oh wait."  
>"Clara, you're really not helping," Peyton said, "and I mean that in the nicest way possible."<br>"Start talking Oracle!" I shouted. "Did that do anything?"  
>"No," Lillian said.<br>And then something happened. Lillian started to sway, her feet getting caught in her trailing hair. Her neck rolled around, making her head look very heavy on her shoulders. Her arms went slack by her sides. She swooned. Peyton dived in like a trained hero, catching her at the last second before she hit the floor. While he panicked, I maintained a level head, trying to guess what was about to happen. This was it. This was the prophecy. I didn't think now was the right time to tell Peyton that my shouting had helped. Lillian rested heavily against Peyton, her eyes closed one second, then open the next, with the same slit pupil eyes and glowing the same yellow color as they had done by the canoeing lake. I held by breath, waiting.  
>"A demon, a god and a titan,<br>Together the weight of tasks will lighten,  
>You must save the goddess, the Queen of All,<br>Have the monster answer your call,  
>Beware of the world, filled with evil and dread,<br>Because something is wrong, And you all should be dead."  
>Lillian's distorted demon voice faded and so did her acidic eyes. She blinked a few times, looking shocked that she was on the floor. "What happened?" she I shivered. "I don't think you want to know." 

"So the 'you should be dead' bit was still there, then," I said, wringing my hands in my lap. As soon as Lillian was strong enough to stand, we'd all hurried out of the attic. I practically tripped on every step of the ladder; I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I might have been prepared for a prophecy, but not one that declared my peril.  
>"Well, death is a usual side effect for not completing a quest," Peyton said, his voice weak. He was holding Lillian's hand. We were all settled on my bed in the Hera room, the pink flowers in the vase on the windowsill seeming to wither in our sad presence.<br>"But the prophecy made it seem like we were defying the laws of the universe being alive right now, not after we finished the quest," I said. "The modal auxiliary verb 'should' connotes duty and obligation."  
>"What?" Lillian looked confused.<br>"Sorry, I just thought we should be dissecting every word."  
>"It's not in Ancient Greek," Peyton said, "we all understood what the prophecy was. We're all going to die if we don't save the 'Queen of all.'"<br>"That's definitely referring to my mother," I said. "The Queen of the Cosmos."  
>"But does she still have that title now that the Olympians have kicked her out of Olympus?" Peyton asked. Oh, right. My mother was now a vagabond, thanks to me being alive. Another bad thing I was responsible for.<br>"Your mom seems to have a habit of getting herself into trouble," Lillian said, wrapping her hair around her arm like a protective shield.  
>"She wouldn't have to be in trouble if Zeus stopped cheating on her. It really hurts her self-esteem, I'm sure," I said, trying to sympathize with Hera. I didn't want to come up at odds with half the magical race just because she held a few grudges. I was already sensing some tension between Lillie and I because of what Hera did to Lamia. I wish Lilac hadn't told me the story.<br>"Hera wouldn't be in trouble if she didn't cheat on Zeus," Peyton said until he saw the look on my face. "I mean, we're both really glad that you're here and everything. We're all not meant to be here, really."  
>Lillian sighed, "And that's the point of the prophecy. To alienate us."<br>"We've got to do something to restore the balance to the cosmos. We're a demon child, a titan child and a basically illegal demi-god."  
>"I don't like where this is going," I said.<br>"We're not sacrificing ourselves for the good of mankind if that's what you're thinking." Lillian shook her head. "We can't sacrifice ourselves, we have to complete the quest and fulfill the prophecy."  
>"The one that no one knows we've been given because the Oracle wi-fi is meant to be down? The one that could potentially lead to our collective deaths? The one that, if we don't complete, Chiron and Mr. D will kill us anyway for escaping?"<br>"Yes," Peyton nodded, "all of those things."  
>"We're going to have to tell somebody," I said. "Chiron at least knows of your existence."<br>"And the whole camp knows of yours," Lillie added.  
>"Which means we need to fess up about Lillian, gather supplies, pack lunches, get transport, who's going to do it?"<br>Peyton gulped, thinking of how big an undertaking going on a quest was.  
>"Who's telling Chiron?" I persisted.<br>Peyton rubbed Lillie's hand. "Ladies first?"


	12. Chapter 12 - Convincing Chiron

Guess who got lumped with telling Chiron. It certainly wasn't the son of the titan.

I'd been nervous climbing up stairs before, but never down. As I made my way down to the porch, when Chiron would undoubtedly be playing cards with Mr. D, my knees wouldn't stop shaking.

They always say it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, but is that still the case when you've been harboring a demi-demon? Probably not.

"Hello, Clara," Chiron said before I'd even stepped through the porch door.

"Hi, Chiron," I whispered, approaching the table at a glacial pace. I could see some Apollo campers playing volleyball on the court. What I wouldn't give to trade places with one of those care-free campers.

"I noticed you weren't at Ancient Greek this morning," he said. "Normally that session is mandatory."

"Well, I thought due to the circumstances…"

"What circumstances are those?" Chiron raised an eyebrow over his sunglasses.

"Everyone in the camp hating my guts," I said.

Mr. D scoffed from his place opposite Chiron, as he flicked a card onto the deck.

"Where did you get that idea?"

"The ignoring pretty much gave it away."

"Here at Camp Half Blood, no one is better than any one else. It doesn't matter about their heritage or whether they've been on quests. Everyone _matters, _Clara, even a daughter of Hera."

"The _only _daughter of Hera," Mr. D added, unnecessarily.

"If those are your motivational hero speeches, then you've got a lot to work on, Chiron," I laughed.

"But motivation isn't what you need right now, is it?" Chiron asked. "You've come here for a very different reason."

I wondered if he had some kind of centaur sixth-sense. "I've come to ask you something."

"Obviously," Mr. D said, throwing another card onto the deck.

"It's about a quest."

"There are no quests," Mr. D deadpanned. "The Oracle is currently inactive."

"You mean Rachel is currently inactive," I modified. "The Oracle isn't."

"What do you mean?" Chiron looked genuinely concerned.

"The Oracle is kind of like a spirit," I said. "I think it can take multiple forms…perhaps even a demon form?"

Mr. D pulled his sunglasses down the bridge of his nose so I could see the dark pupils of his eyes. "Young lady," he said, which didn't sound good. "The Oracle is a divine being. It cannot take the form of a demon that is inherently evil."

"What if the prophetic channel wasn't entirely demon? Perhaps she was a woman beforehand, and was cursed to be a demon? Or perhaps that demon's child is the one with the prophetic powers?"

"Clara, please tell us exactly what you mean. Whenever people talk about hypothetical situations, it's normally autobiographical."

"OK, well," I took a deep breath, "Peyton, Lillie and I got given a quest."

"A QUEST?" Mr. D shouted in disbelief.

"Who's Lillie?" Chiron said, his emotions more rational than the camp director, whose face had colored the same as red wine. I bet he wished he had a glass next to him, instead of the cursed Coca Cola can.

I continued to explain Lillian's backstory and how she came to be at Camp Half Blood. It was impossible not to mention our illicit trips to the attic, which only caused Mr. D to turn a deeper shade of red and for Chiron to simply roll his eyes, as if he was used to heroes not following his instructions.

After I'd finished the two just sat in silence.

"So," Mr. D cleared his throat, "You're telling us that your mother is in trouble, for the second time in the last six months and needs to be rescued by the very girl that caused her all this trouble in the first place."

The god's words stung, bringing sharp tears to my eyes. I refused to blink, thinking that I'd already done enough crying for the day down in the strawberry fields.

"That's exactly right," I said instead of bursting into tears. "The three of us need to go on this quest to save Hera, my mother, and then find out why we're meant to be dead."

Mr. D opened his mother to answer the question but Chiron promptly stopped him from speaking by slamming his hand over the camp director's mouth.

"Clara," he said, "this sounds like a very extreme endeavor. One I would be uncomfortable granting you permission to complete."

"But it's a quest! We have to complete it!"

"However," the centaur said, "I know that if I prohibit the three of you from going on the quest that you will simply flee the camp without permission and take on the quest anyway. Many have done that before." Chiron rolled his eyes, but smiled affectionately. I remember Percy Jackson saying that his first quest to find the lightning bolt hadn't been well received.

"So we can go?" I said at the same time Mr. D said, "so they can go?"

"Yes," Chiron said. "But I want the whole camp behind them. We can't let Clara leave with all this bad blood in the air, otherwise if she meets a god on her journey, which I don't doubt she will, they will be unwilling to help her because of their children's hostility."

"What do you suggest? That they all hold hands and make daisy chains?" He laughed at his own suggestion.

"We'll have every cabin contribute to Clara's cause."

"Every cabin?" Mr. D laughed harder. "The girl is going to be swamped with gifts."

"OK, well, she'll have gifts from the council of Olympians, then. I have a feeling they're going to be the ones that need to be won over."

"So you admit there's been some hostility?" I said.

"I can't deny that people have been on edge since you were claimed.

"Two days ago," Mr. D pointed out. "Two days is all it takes to create chaos."

"Luckily, Chaos is all under control." Chiron chuckled at his pun. "But if this quest involves a trip to the Underworld, if that is indeed where Lillian comes from, you must stay alert and out of trouble."

"Pretty hard to do with the god of the dead leering down at you," I muttered. "But thank you, thank you, thank you!" I looped my arms around Chiron's neck. He seemed surprised at my affection, but lightly patted my arm before drawing up a chair for me.

"Deal her in Dionysus. We have much more to discuss."

"So what happened then?" Lillian asked, winding her hair around her finger.

"We played Bridge." I shrugged while Peyton laughed.

"You were talking about life or death over a card game?" He guffawed. "Just when I thought this camp couldn't get any more ridiculous."

"He said that we were going to get gifts from every major cabin," I said, "so that should ease the process of our quest.

"Our quest," Lillian squealed. "I just love saying it!"

"But before we go on 'our quest', Lillie," I said, "we have to do something about your hair. Peyton, do we have any scissors?"

Lillie screeched at the idea of scissors. "You're not cutting my hair," she said. Her strawberry locks trailed on the floor as she sat on the bed."

"OK, Rapunzel, we don't want you to lose your magic powers." I smiled. "We'll just plait it. Then we can start packing for _our quest._"


End file.
